The study seeks to evaluate the impacts of three types of credit -formal, semi-formal, and informal credits -on the well-being of households in Vietnam's rural areas. Based on data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys in 2014 and 2016, the research uses the instrumental variable fixed-effect models to estimate the effects of three kinds of credit on household's per capita income and expenditure. There are some significant findings. First, in rural areas, formal credit is the most popular source with stable and cheap borrowing costs. Informal credit is a complement to formal credit to meet urgent needs. Funding agriculture activities is the most commonly cited purpose of borrowing, followed by purchasing assets. The highest misuse rate belongs to the group of loans for agriculture production. Second, the results show that credit helps smoothen consumption rather than generate income for rural households. Three types of credit have insignificant or negative effects on household's per capita income. Formal loans significantly improve total expenditure and spending on healthcare and education. Informal and semi-formal credits show a little influence on consumption. Informal loans have a significantly positive effect on healthcare expenditure. In contrast, having semi-formal loans tends to decrease spending on foods.

Many cross-country studies find the significant role of Fintech in accelerating the pace of financial inclusion, filling a gap left by traditional service providers, and delivering affordable and suitable financial services to the poor. Vietnam is one of the countries having the lowest financial inclusion state with merely 31% of adults having an account at a formal financial institution. However, the country is among the emerging fintech markets in the region with an increasing rate of digital penetration. Contributing to the increasing literature on digital inclusive finance, our research investigates the effects of Fintech on financial inclusion in Vietnam. The paper uses the data on Vietnam's digital financial inclusion stage and households in two years 2018 and 2020. The data on households is obtained from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys (VHLSSs) in 2018 and 2020. In general, Vietnamese households have low access to all formal financial services. In addition, the popularity of using Fintech products such as mobile and internet banking services and online payment has a significant impact on household usage of savings, accounts, ATMs, and credit cards.